A Cobb County woman accused of sitting on her 2-year-old son's head was recently indicted.

The grand jury charged Susan Elizabeth Kelley of Kennesaw with first-degree child cruelty March 23.

Her attorney Maddox Kilgore said Tuesday he would enter a plea of not guilty whenever Kelley has an arraignment hearing.

Kilgore represented Justin Ross Harris, a Cobb County man who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his 22-month-old son Cooper by leaving him to die in a hot car.

Kilgore said that Kelley’s boy has fully recovered from the May 11 incident.

According to an arrest warrant, Kelley placed a towel on a wooden dining chair, put her son’s head on the towel and then sat on him with all her body weight for about an hour.

She told police she sat on her son to “gain ‘submission’ from the child,” the warrant said.

The boy became unresponsive and was rushed to Egleston Hospital in Atlanta.

At the time, Kelley was arrested and then released on a $55,220 bond.

About the Author

Keep Reading

People line up outside the federal building in Atlanta that houses an immigration court and ICE office. Several cases in the court are at the center of a disciplinary proceeding against Norcross immigration lawyer Christopher Taylor. (Ben Hendren/AJC 2025)

Credit: Ben Hendren

Featured

Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

Credit: NYT